Spring-bridge grilles are used in a variety of different designs as underspringing for an upholstered support, for example a seat cushion or a mattress. In this case, the flexible mounting of the spring bridges has proven very successful, in particular for beds with a high degree of lying comfort which is optimum from health aspects.
According to the prior art, the flexibility of these spring bridges is achieved by elastic suspension of the individual spring strips on the frame, and different variants of special elastic supporting bodies for the spring strips have been disclosed for this purpose, these being described, interalia, in German Patents 25 36 898 and 28 42 038.
German Utility Model G 93 17114 has disclosed another type of spring bridge, in the case of which the flexibility is achieved by a plurality of the spring elements being arranged on a main, load-bearing bridge.
The abovementioned spring bridges can be used to construct spring-bridge grilles which--in conjunction with the mattress--adjust in optimum fashion to the body of the person lying thereon, the nature and lying position of which mean that the person's body exerts locally very different and constantly changing bearing forces.
However, these convincing advantages, in relation to the lying comfort, of the previously known constructions are paired with certain disadvantages in relation to the production costs. Thus, in particular the elastic supporting bodies or spring elements which are required in these types of spring-bridge grilles, and are usually produced from rubber and are of relatively complicated construction, constitute cost-intensive additional parts.